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A curated selection of videos, including book trailers, brief interviews, and other literary curiosities updated daily.
“I worry about what’s going to happen with those good, younger writers.” Author John Irving discusses the past, present, and future of the publishing industry and the challenging literary landscape for first-time novelists.
Novelist Heidi Julavits, author of The Vanishers, discusses how to avoid slipping into the creative undertow of telling too much backstory, which expends precious energy and squanders productivity.
“It’s like banning ideas, banning thoughts, banning people,” explains Walter Mosley, one of 13 authors who express in this video—released to recognize Banned Books Week 2013—their thoughts on censorship and banned books.
“The New Yorker has been telling the story of our culture for 88 years.” Wyatt Mitchell, the magazine’s creative director, explains the historical context to font updates and design changes that have modernized iconic sections of the revered publication.
“Unlike most authors, she did not publish in her own lifetime.” This video clip features the Emily Dickinson Archive, which offers high-resolution images of Dickinson's poetry, transcripts, and annotations from her historical and scholarly work.
This trailer for Great Expectations, based on the Charles Dickens novel which was published in three volumes in 1861, stars Helena Bonham Carter, Toby Irvine, Jason Flemyng, Ralph Fiennes, and Holliday Grainger.
“Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.” English actor Benedict Cumberbatch delivers a haunting interpretation of “Ode to a Nightingale” by John Keats.
Natasha Trethewey, poet laureate of the U.S., and Jeffrey Brown explore the impact poetry has on people who suffer from Alzheimer’s Disease in this video clip from the series Where Poetry Lives on PBS Newshour.
"And there were nights when I'd feel his stare..." In this video clip from 1981, Jimmy Stewart reads a poem about his dog on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
In this TED-Ed animated video, poet Gayle Danley artfully explains the five essential elements to becoming an effective slam poet.
